I was still maybe a dozen yards away when I realized I had no idea what the hell I was going to say once I caught up to them. Hopefully, I'd think of something more clever than “Get your arm off my girl before I rip it out of your socket!”, but hey, who knows. Anyway, I was closing fast when there came the most God awful shriek. We all stopped dead in our tracks at that. Holy crap, was someone strangling a bobcat?
But no, it was Gan. She emerged from a side street and screeched again, a look of pure animalistic rage on her face. Whoa, she looked pissed. With my enhanced vampire night-vision, I could also tell she was armed for battle, claws and teeth at the ready. She spotted the two I had been tracking and went straight after them.
This was it, only one chance. I put on all the speed I could and launched myself on an intercept course with the little she-devil. As I accelerated, time seemed to slow down. Sheila appeared rooted to the spot, a cross between confusion and fear on her face. Mr. VP of Marketing, however, wasn't quite so frozen. He gave a shout of surprise and actually jumped behind Sheila, raising his arms in some sort of gesture as he did so. Jesus, what a fucking pansy!
But I didn't have (much) time for name calling. As Gan closed on them, I launched myself and caught her, full bore, on the side.
“Gotcha!” I yelled as we tumbled head over heels into a pile of garbage on the side of the street.
“Let me go. I do this for you!” She hissed at me, struggling to get up.
She was a lot older than me, and in a fair fight could probably have taken me; however, I had a pretty good adrenaline rush going on, and I had the advantage of size and leverage. I managed to wrap my arms around her and drag her to her feet.
“You need to knock this crap off now!” I said to her.
“Bill?” a heavenly voice suddenly called to me. Oh, yeah. The woman who held my heart in her hand was standing not fifteen feet away, watching me manhandle a little girl. This had the potential to be a bit awkward.
I thought fast. Nothing good came to mind. Oh well, time to wing it. But first things first. I whispered in a barely audible voice, but one that I knew Gan would hear just fine, “Whatever you do, please just be quiet for now.” Then it was showtime.
“Sheila? Is that you?” I said, turning towards her with a big, sunny smile on my face. “Funny running into you here! Wow, small world.”
The look on her face was absolute confusion. “What are you doing?” escaped from her (luscious) lips in a small voice.
“Oh, this? Yeah, probably looks pretty whacky!” I said in an overly chipper voice. “I was just...playing with...my niece, Becky.”
Gan had put away her fangs for now; however, she was still giving Harry a look of murder. Fortunately, for once she did as she was told and kept her mouth shut; otherwise, this could have ended badly.
“Your niece?” Sheila asked, looking between myself and the little Asian girl in my arms.
“Yeah. What can I say? We're one big diverse family. Fun on the holidays, I can tell you!”
She still had a doubtful look on her face, but at least the fear had drained out of it. She opened her mouth to speak again, but that’s when Harry stepped back up next to her (guess the pussy was done with his cowering) and growled, “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”
Sheila gave him a not-so-kind look (yes!) and said, “Harry, this is Bill Ryder. You know, from the Games Department.”
“I know him,” he said in a slow, malicious voice...something cold sparkling in his eyes. However, then he apparently realized his tone as he lightened it considerably. “You're one of Jim's boys, right?” (Jim's boys? Fuck you, you brown-nosing cocksucker!)
“I work for Jim. I'm pretty sure we've met,” I said in an even tone, locking eyes with him. He stared back. Yeah, well screw you, pal. I've stared down centuries-old predators. No way was I backing down from some marketing drone; however, before things could heat up, Sheila spoke and ended our little pissing match.
“Harry has a point, Bill. What were you doing?” she asked.
“Oh, you know,” I said, again adopting an innocent tone. “We were just horsing around. I took Becky here to a movie tonight. Afterwards, we went and got some ice-cream. I guess I sugared her up a little too much (God, this sounded awful!). She decided she wanted to play...a game of tag, and I've been stuck chasing her, the little scamp,” I said cheerfully, giving Gan's shoulders a playful shake. She continued to say nothing, which was a minor Godsend, although she still kept staring at Harry like he was a side dish on the dinner buffet. “Sorry she scared you back there,” I said to him, a big ol’ grin on my face. “Guess I shouldn't have taken her to see that zombie flick.”
Harry just glared daggers at me. I couldn’t help but notice that Sheila gave him another minor look of disapproval as he was doing so. Oh, yeah. Whatever moves he had put on her earlier had just gone down the drain. Take that, limpdick!
I was trying to think of an appropriate out before any of the parties present wised up and realized that my story made absolutely no fucking sense when I heard another voice shout, “Gan!”
I turned my head to see Starlight come running down the street towards us. Upon seeing that we weren't alone, she quickly slowed down to a more normal speed as she approached. Oh crap! Just what I needed, more complications.
“Gan?” asked Sheila.
“Oh...that's just our little nickname for Becky here,” I sputtered as Starlight came up to us. I thought fast. “Oh hey, Alice!” I said to her, using her real name. “Sorry we missed you at the ice cream shop. Just playing a bit with my favorite niece...your daughter...here!” I said, throwing her a wink. I hoped she was bright enough to pick up on things. Even if not, hopefully she was scared enough of me to just play along without questioning.
“This is your sister?” asked Sheila. My, she was an inquisitive little thing.
“Yes,” I said. “This is my...sister, Alice.” It was then that I realized that together we probably all looked like a workplace poster for diversity training, so I quickly added, “She's adopted...so is Gan...err Becky. Yep! That's my family. Almost too much love to go around.”
“Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry. I think that’s wonderful, by the way,” Sheila quickly replied after pausing for a few moments. Thank goodness for politically correct politeness. There was still confusion in her eyes; she certainly wasn't stupid, but I think she figured it might be rude to probe more.
“Yeah, isn't it?” I said, continuing with the smiles. “Well, will you look at the time. Way past Becky's bedtime here, wouldn't you say, sis?” I nudged Starlight with my foot.
“Oh...yes. Time for little growing girls to be put to bed,” she stammered unconvincingly. An actress, Starlight was not.
Fortunately, Gan was our out here. Despite the fact that I was sure that they, or at least Harry, wanted to put me under a lamp and grill me until I cracked, the old ‘I need to put the kids to bed’ routine was a surefire escape route. Trust me on this. I've seen more than one of my now married college friends use that excuse.
“I guess it is getting late,” replied Sheila. The tone of her voice suggested that she was saying it to everyone present, Decker included. So maybe this whole debacle didn't turn out to be such a clusterfuck after all.
“Goodnight,” I said to her fondly before turning to the asshole by her side. “Good to see you again, Harry,” I said to him in a tone that implied I didn't feel anything of the sort.
“Likewise,” he replied dryly and then added, “I'll see you again soon,” in that creepy tone he had used earlier. This was a guy in desperate need of a personality transplant.
Sheila said goodnight to me (oh, to only hear those words in a different context) and did a quick, “Nice to meet you,” to Gan and Starlight, and that was our cue to exit stage left.
Starlight and I started walking away with Gan tucked closely in between us. She was fast, but probably not so fast as to be able to bolt without one of us getting a hold of her first.
<
br /> “You should have let me kill him. The world would not miss his kind,” said Gan, sensing that it was now OK to break her silence.
“I know you think humans are less than us, Gan. But that doesn't make it right to kill them for no reason,” I replied.
“You are angry?” she asked in a slightly disappointed tone.
I thought about it for a few seconds and then smiled at her. “Actually I'm not as angry as you might think. In fact there's a small part of me that's pleased.”
“I do not understand. I did not kill him as you had earlier wished.”
“No, you did not, and that's a good thing. On the other hand, you sure as shit guaranteed that he'll be sleeping alone tonight. And that, believe me, is a pretty damn good happy ending if ever I heard one.”
Heads Up
I decided to accompany Starlight and Gan back to the loft, mostly to keep an eye on the latter. Along the way, I tried to think of a way to explain to her why she needed to stay with the coven. Considering my previous failures in doing anything to get her to stay put or listen, I decided to change tactics. Gan wasn't from our society, and thus our normal ways of getting someone to comply (please, or the ever popular ‘do as I tell you or I'll kick your ass’) wouldn't make any sense to her. I wasn't very well versed in Asian culture, but I had seen enough anime (and not just of the tentacle porn variety) to be able to make an educated guess.
“Despite your motives, what you did tonight was very...disrespectful, Gan,” I said in a stern but otherwise emotionless voice.
She turned to face me, but then actually averted her eyes. Yes! She had no doubt been read this riot act before. No matter her age or station, I was learning that there were still some kid parts in her brain. And regardless of the attitude, most kids know when they've done wrong, especially when they get called out on it. I remembered this very well from my own childhood. The thing with parents is knowing which buttons to push on a child. If I was right, and Gan's reaction told me that I probably was, she'd been ingrained to react like Pavlov's dog at any mention of disrespect from any person in authority. Since I was technically one such person and she was on my turf, I was hoping I could instill a similar reaction in her. Thus I pressed onward.
“When I first arrived in your land, James...the Wanderer, asked me to stay where I was. I was new to the land, and there were dangers about. I did as I was asked (sorta) because it would have been both foolish and disrespectful to do otherwise.” I glanced over and saw that her eyes were downcast. Oh yeah! Every fish just needs the right bait to be caught.
“Think about that, Gan,” I continued. “The same is true of you. You don't know this city. Trust me when I say there are many dangers here (her being one of the biggest). I didn't ask you to stay with Starlight as a punishment. I asked you to do it because this is my land, those are my rules, and (time for another Oscar moment) ...because I care about your safety. You disappointed me tonight, Gan.”
Her eyes were still downcast, but I could have sworn my sensitive vampire ears picked up a small sniff from her. She finally said in a very small voice, “I am sorry, Bill. You are right. I have acted shamefully. I will not do so again.”
Wow, I gotta remember to browbeat kids more often. Now the question was whether or not she meant it. That was a big if, as I was sure that, sooner or later, she was going to remember who was who on the vampire food chain. But for now at least I could let out a nice, long sigh of relief.
Then, as we neared our destination, a thought hit me. “Starlight, speaking of disrespect, where the hell is Dusk Reaper? Wasn't he supposed to be helping you?”
She hesitated for a few seconds, no doubt debating between the lesser of the two evils of covering for him versus ratting him out. Once upon a time, it wouldn't have been much of a choice; however, these days I was holding a lot more cards than he was. I just waited for her to make the decision I knew she would.
“He...wasn't very helpful,” she finally said.
“I gathered that.”
“He pretty much just went down to the bar.” Not too surprising. The loft was located in the third floor of its building. The second floor was kept bare for the purposes of a little extra noise insulation, as well as storage. The ground floor was home to a small but fairly popular lounge. It provided both enough sound to cover some of the nastier goings on in the loft, as well as occasionally served, in times of need, as a convenient hunting ground for the coven.
“What about after Gan left?” I asked.
“I went to get him. But he told me that he'd stay behind. You know, just in case Gan came back.”
“How noble of him,” I remarked. Unfortunately for Mr. Nobility, I still had just enough anger in me from the events of the past hour to ensure that I was going to enjoy having a little talk with him when we got back.
* * *
We entered the loft, and Dusk Reaper's visage was waiting there to greet our return. Unfortunately, any talk I planned to have with him would probably need to be postponed...indefinitely, due to the oddities of the situation. Those oddities mostly consisting of his head staring up at us from the floor, minus any sign of his body.
Just so that I don't come across as getting overly desensitized to this sort of thing, I should probably point out that my immediate reaction was to yell, “HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!”
Starlight's reaction was even worse. I had mentioned before that she was no actress. Well, judging by the way she was screaming, she might have actually made a pretty good extra in a Friday The 13th movie.
Gan, of course, had to put both of us to shame by keeping her shit together. In an almost bored voice, she remarked, “I see the assassins have arrived. I would have expected them sooner.”
* * *
After I had gotten Starlight to stop screaming, no easy feat, I led her into the kitchen. There, I sat her down at the table with a fifth of tequila I had procured from one of the cabinets. I ordered her to take a few shots to calm her nerves. That would keep her out of my hair for a few moments until I could clear my mind.
I returned to find Gan examining the crime scene.
“Be careful with that, Gan. It could be dangerous,” I said lamely, not really knowing what danger a disembodied head posed. But hey, it was the best I had at the moment.
“Do not fear, Dr. Death,” she responded without looking up. “They are no longer here. If they were...you would know.”
If that was meant to reassure me, it failed badly. However, just to make myself feel a bit better, I closed and locked the front door anyway. It wasn't much, but if they came back, it might give me just enough time to kiss my ass goodbye before they broke in.
That being done, I turned back towards Dusk Reaper’s head. I had seen enough dead bodies by this point, so the shock didn't last too long. There was also the fact that any mourning period I might have had for him ended about ten seconds after finding his remains. He was a douche, no two ways about it. I would miss him about as much as I missed having crabs (not that I ever had them, mind you). Still, there was something odd about his death. It took me a moment, but then I realized what it was.
“How come he's not dust?” I asked no one in particular.
“His body is,” Gan answered. “Look over in the corner.” She pointed into the living room, and sure enough there was a small pile of ash lying there.
“Yeah, but his head...” I replied.
“Father's assassins are well trained in this. There are times when an enemy’s fangs are simply not enough to send the correct message.”
“Yeah, but how?” I asked. “Every vamp I've ever seen get dusted...well, it was kind of a package deal.”
“Your inexperience shows, my love,” she answered, again going back to that my love bullshit. I guess we were past the whole disrespect thing already. “They would have removed it in one quick strike with a sharpened silver blade coated in a special poison. The body immolates, but the head remains.”
“Oh. That’s pleasant to know.”
> “That is not the worst,” she continued.
“No? Sounds pretty much like the worst to me.”
“Your friend was lucky. They let him die.”
“Not really following you here, Gan.”
“If they had placed his head immediately into blood, they could have kept it alive,” she explained. “That is a fate reserved for the worst offenders.”
I gulped. “How long could they keep it alive?”
“For an eternity, if so desired. Imagine an existence such as that. Unable to do anything but tolerate the whim of your captor. Unable to even die unless granted mercy.”
Whoa. Considering that the elder vampires weren't particularly known for their mercy, that didn't sound like much fun.
Scary Dead Things - 02 Page 17
